BWH Acute Care Surgery Fellowship

Vision

The Division of TACS seeks to train surgeons that demonstrate a strong aptitude for and commitment to an academic career in trauma and emergency surgery. Our objective is to produce clinical and investigative leaders in emergency surgery.

Leadership

The Acute Care Surgery Fellowship is led by Dr. Reza Askari (Program Director) under the leadership of Dr. Ali Salim, the Division Chief of TACS at the Brigham.

Overall Goals

The Acute Care Surgery Fellowship is intended for general surgeons eligible for certification by the American Board of Surgery with interest in an academic career in acute care surgery.

The Fellowship is designed to prepare fellows to practice competently and independently as Trauma and Acute Care Surgeons. The program incorporates the fellows into a junior faculty role and provides them with graduated autonomy allowing them to develop and fine tune their surgical skills and decision making. We strive to provide a broad-based experience in emergency general surgery and trauma.

Clinical

The entire ACS Fellowship is spent at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Our fellowship provides a very unique and rich emergency surgery experience as many of our acute care consultations are cancer patients with advanced and or rare disease processes. The complexity of cases provides an incredible learning opportunity for our fellows. To supplement our trauma experience, fellows are offered a two-month elective to do an international rotation at a high-volume trauma hospital in South Africa.

The two ACS fellows rotate between staffing our trauma/acute care surgery service as the “inpatient fellow” to being the “outpatient fellow” that focuses on elective cases, metabolic support services (tracheostomies, feeding tubes, port placements) and clinic. The Outpatient fellow takes faculty trauma/ACS call 3 times per month. Each fellow is given 4 weeks vacation.

Didactics

Every Thursday Fellows will join and participate in our Trauma/ACS didactics with the 1st year fellows and residents on service. On Wednesdays, the fellows will attend the general surgery department M&M, followed by Grand Rounds featuring speakers of national prominence on a wide variety of topics and advances in the surgical field.

Fellows are also invited to trauma journal club, monthly Trauma Peer Review Committee Meetings, and monthly Trauma Performance Improvement and Patient Safety Committee Meetings.

Research

The Brigham is dedicated to patient centered research and innovation, which is also core to our division of trauma and surgical critical care. Fellows are expected to join our divisions ongoing research efforts, and we are supportive of independent investigation as well. Opportunities in clinical outcomes, basic science, surgical education, or clinical guideline development are available. Most of the trauma faculty have research projects within the Center for Surgery Public Health, which is a combined initiative between Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Harvard T.H Chan School of Public Health. This provides an opportunity for our fellows to be involved with surgical public health initiatives.

We also are very proud of our Gillian Reny Stepping Strong Center for Trauma innovation, whose mission is to catalyze multidisciplinary collaboration to inspire groundbreaking innovation, effective prevention and compassionate intervention to both civilians and military heroes who endure traumatic injuries and events. Fellows are welcome to join the current projects or propose their own.

Mentorship

Fellows have an office within our trauma suite to encourage frequent informal and formal discussion of patients, cases, and career development. Fellows will work closely with every staff member within the division. You will find the division to be collaborative, supportive and engaged in your development. Each fellow will meet monthly with the Program Director to discuss clinical, academic, and professional progress. The Program Director will share informal feedback at these regular meetings and, at least quarterly, will share formal feedback from the other division attendings. The Fellows will receive career mentorship to include advice in career development, nomination to national surgical societies, sponsorship for surgical meetings, guidance on research projects, and help with obtaining research funding. Each Fellow will have a mentorship plan tailored to his/her specific career goals.

Supervision

Fellows have graduated autonomy as they begin their fellowship. Trauma/Acute care surgery rounds occur as a large group with the opportunity for the fellow to obtain feedback on management and operative plans. One senior faculty member is available as a backup for the fellow in the operating room while on call.

Selection Process

The program invites applications for candidates who will have completed a general surgery residency and be board eligible in the United States or Canada by the start of the fellowship.

Brigham and Women’s Hospital is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women and members of minority groups are encouraged to apply.

How to Apply

The Acute Care Surgery Fellowship is typically taken as an optional second year after completing the 1-year BWH Surgical Critical Care fellowship. Applicants apply to the Surgical Critical Care Fellowship and select the 2-year track. Fellowship positions are matched via the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). All applicants should apply via the SCC and ACS Fellowship Application Service (SAFAS).

To inquire whether there is an ACS position open without the Surgical Critical Care year, or for more information contact Deirdre McLaren, Program Coordinator: dtmclaren@bwh.harvard.edu.